It's a new week, and so here's another compilation of news concerning jazz artists from St. Louis, recent visitors, coming attractions, and other items of interest:* Trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold is a featured guest soloist on Open Reel Deck, the just released CD from saxophonist Marcus Strickland. The set was recorded live at NYC's Jazz Standard this past April.
* Saxophonist Oliver Lake (pictured) will be performing this weekend an NYC's Iridium, as part of the ensemble Trio 3 with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, plus their special guest, pianist Geri Allen.
* Ron Carter waxed nostalgic about former employer Miles Davis in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times prompted by the bassist's new CD, Dear Miles.
* Tony Bennett, who's coming to the Fox Theatre in October, will debut his new album Tony Bennett Sings The Ultimate American Songbook, Volume 1 this weekend on, of all places, the QVC home shopping channel. Bennett will go on QVC at 11 p.m. Saturday, September 1 to hawk a specially packaged CD that's being put on sale 24 days before the "official" release date.
* Performers at the upcoming Rosslyn Jazz Festival, held September 8 in Arlington, VA, will include violinist Regina Carter, singer Kevin Mahogany, and mallet percussionist Bobby Hutcherson, all of whom performed in St. Louis over the last year. The event will be broadcast live in the Washington DC area by jazz station WPFW 89.3 FM, and you can listen online here.
* Bassist Dave Holland, another ex-Miles Davis sideman who played the Bistro earlier this year with his quintet, recently brought a sextet to NYC's Blue Note. Read the New York Times review here.
* Speaking of NYC, avant garde and experimental musicians there recently rallied to call for more support and performance venues for creative musicians in the city.
* And continuing on the subject of musicians rallying, the AP reported that this weekend, as the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approached, "musicians, instruments strapped to their backs and signs in hand, marched to the French Quarter on Sunday, demanding better wages and asking tourists, music lovers and political leaders not to take them for granted." The article continued:
"It ain't easy to be in the Big Easy," Deacon John Moore, the president of the local musicians union, told onlookers after the low-key march through the rain from Louis Armstrong Park. "Our musicians are suffering. We hate to come out here and beg, but we have no alternative at this point."...
Before Katrina, he said, there were more than 3,000 professional musicians, including music teachers, in New Orleans; this spring, there were less than 1,800, he said. Moore estimated a quarter of those commute into the city, where music has long been part of the colorful culture...
"The local music economy has forced local musicians to live in survival mode, 'a little something is better than nothing,'" the guitarist-band leader-singer said. "That's how you live when your back's against the wall.""
Read the whole thing here. Also worth a look is this appreciation of New Orleans and plea for reconstruction from travel writer Janis Turk.
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